India escalating tension on LoC to divert attention from Kashmir: FO

ISLAMABAD, July 13 (APP): Indian forces are continuously
committing unprovoked ceasefire violations on the Line of Control
(LoC) and Working Boundary, to divert attention of the international community from the core Kashmir issue.
Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria during the weekly
press briefing here on Thursday said that India was deliberately
escalating tension on the LoC.
He said only in 2017, India committed 542 ceasefire violations
in which 18 innocent civilians were killed. The Indian atrocities
and human rights violations had been intensified in the
Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), which needed the world attention,
he added.
The spokesperson said that the 44th session of the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign
Ministers (CFM) – held in Abidjan, Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, on
July 10-11, 2017 – condemned the state terrorism in the IOK and
called upon India to implement the United Nations Security Council resolutions on Kashmir.
Nafees Zakaria said that the resolution, which was
unanimously adopted by the 56-member council, noted that Jammu
and Kashmir remained the core dispute between India and Pakistan, and
its early resolution was imperative for bringing peace to South Asia.
He said that the council expressed its support to
the widespread indigenous movement of the IOK people for
their promised right to self-determination and observed that
the just struggle of Kashmiris could not be equated with terrorism.
The spokesperson said that the council also called upon
the United Nations and the International Community to play their role in stopping the continuing bloodshed in the IOK, and for the
implementation of the UN Security Council’s Resolutions on Jammu
& Kashmir, which guaranteed Kashmiris’ right to self-determination
through a UN supervised plebiscite.
Nafees Zakaria said that solidarity with the oppressed
Kashmiris had been expressed across the world – including the United
Kingdom, Europe and North America – in the form of peaceful
demonstrations.
The Kashmir dispute’s reflection in the UK Labour
Party election manifesto and in the January 19 debate in the
House of Commons, represented increasing concern over
the current unacceptable human rights situation in the IOK, he added.
He said today (July 13) Kashmiris
were observing `Youm-i-Shuhada’ to commemorate the
unprecedented sacrifices rendered by them in 1931.
“We pay tribute to Shuhada (martyrs) and express solidarity with
the Kashmiris in their struggle against Indian unlawful occupation of
their territory,” he added.
Replying to a question regarding the missing Pakistani diplomatic staff and another two Pakistani citizens in Afghanistan,
the spokesperson said that Pakistan was constantly in touch
with the Afghan authorities for their early recovery.